Play a game or tournament of darts with seven wacky characters, including
Nigel the Ninja, Jeff the Archer, Baza the War Machine, and Jocky Pilsner. Each
character has their own method of playing, and some even use arrows, shurikens
and bullets instead of darts – now that is wacky! You can play either
the normal 501 game or a round-the-clock game where you must hit each of the
numbers in sequence, from 20 to 1. This game first appeared on the CPC on the
Quattro Fantastic compilation, and the novelty is fun at first. However,
the collision detection is poor (e.g. scoring a treble 1 when a dart clearly
landed in the treble 20 zone), and aiming the dart accurately is extremely
difficult. The almost total lack of sound effects is another thing to note.

Race the Mean Machine, piloted by Dick Dastardly and his dog Mutley from the
cartoon series, across five long and hazard-filled tracks. You've got to finish
either first or second to be allowed to go to the next level, and to do this,
you must use the Mean Machine's weaponry to bump the other racers off the track,
in true Dick Dastardly style. Worms and beetles also have to be killed using the
same weapons. If you finish in the top two, there's a sub-game where you, as
Mutley, must find four bombs for the next level within the time limit. The
graphics are clear and well drawn, but there are very few sound effects. The
game is a lot of fun initially, and the first level is fairly easy, but by the
second level, it becomes much harder and consequently more frustrating.

The Walking Mummies is a smart idea that has been translated into an
original and interesting game. You take control of a pyramid explorer who
enters mazes with the objective of finding and grabbing treasure chests, which
proves to be a very challenging task. This is a strategy game where you take
control of the explorer and you need to carefully plan your moves. You get only
three steps per round, and after you make your moves, your enemies (cobras and
mummies) take their turns to move. You can fire a limited number of arrows, but
they won't help you much. The graphics are cute but blocky and there is no
sound at all. However, since the idea is original it definitely deserves
attention, but beware; once the mummies attack, you will need nerves of steel
and the virtue of precognition to survive!

A system of ten planets has been taken over by the evil Vadd. You must eradicate
Vadd in order to liberate the planets, but you'll need to obtain 8000 Megs to
buy a Mega Disrupter before you can visit Vadd's planet in the centre of the
system. To do this, you must trade Disrupter units with the planets. Each planet
has five units, which are represented as symbols, and if you can provide a
planet with several units that are the same, you will earn more Megs – think of
it as a variation of poker. You can also fly through black holes and collect
variable Disrupters which can be traded for about 2000 Megs. There is also a lot
of shooting to be done while travelling between the planets. Overall, this
mixture of shoot-'em-up and trading is rather repetitive and lacklustre.

I remember buying this one with my pocket money one weekend. Loading the game
gives the promise of a good-looking shoot-'em-up. An impressive MODE 1 screen
appears as a title screen and options are displayed... then your heart sinks as
the small options menu is slowly replaced by the game background. In this
so-called game, you play within a small window moving your ship around and
hoping to hit the approaching ships which wrap around the edges of the screen as
they move downwards. The colour scheme, while fetching for the rest of the
screen, does no favours to the small area used for the game. Each time you die –
and that's always – you return to the menu, losing a life. Avoid!

Before the mighty Super Cars from Gremlin Graphics came War Cars
Construction Set. Based on the simulation of slot car racing, viewed from an
overhead perspective, you must race against a computer opponent to collect flags
for points, which may also allow you to perform special moves such as crashing
into your opponent's car without losing a life. An added bonus is that the game
contains a construction set where you can build your own tracks. The MODE 1
four-colour scheme is very poor, reminding me of a Spectrum colour scheme. While
the speedway arena playing area is big, it is also confusing as the side-by-side
split screen is very small and the on-screen map is very poor to read. It seems
like you're driving around in circles and not achieving much.

Pilot the advanced Warhawk spaceship through an asteroid belt, shooting the
enemy bases and the swarms of aliens that advance towards you. You'll also
need to avoid asteroids. Contact with them, or with aliens and their bullets,
loses energy. Unfortunately, while it's not a problem to avoid alien spacecraft
or asteroids, the bullets follow you all around the screen and are a lot more
difficult to evade. Thankfully, your energy is restored fully at the start of
every level. The music is brilliant, but the graphics are less so (although the
screen area used is large), and the gameplay lacks variety; basically, it's just
another space shoot-'em-up, and there aren't even any power-ups to collect.

Explore the castle and collect as much treasure as you can, while avoiding or
slaying the warriors and minions that roam the castle. The castle is large, and
as well as doors, there are trapdoors and stars on the floors of many rooms,
which take you to other levels of the castle. Of course, you must also keep an
eye on your energy, and you can collect objects to restore it. I must say that
this isn't a bad game, and the graphics are really good (although it's
sometimes difficult to see what's going on), but the game slows down
dramatically when there are a lot of enemies on the screen, and it's really
Gauntlet in isometric 3D with less variety.

Sometimes budget games can match the best full price productions. War
Machine provides you with full colour graphics and remarkable playability.
The game is neither too easy nor too hard, and there is a peculiar atmosphere
that makes it easy for you to become identified to the hero and take part in his
quest. The game would have deserved a little tune, for the sound, although
convincing, is a bit bare. For real arcade lovers, to try War Machine is
to adopt it.

You've entered a haunted castle, hoping to find some treasure. To gain access to
the upper floors, you must explore every room to find keys and, by the way,
fight monsters. This is an adventure game which uses a third-person view, with
rather dull MODE 1 graphics. The 'Plus' in the title doesn't mean anything, for
the previous version was better in my opinion. Here, every encounter starts a
kind of 'game within a game' where you must shoot a monster, which is amazingly
bad and completely shatters the atmosphere of the game.